Keene State College is saddened to announce that Cornelius Railey (Bud) Lyle II M’61 died Sunday, January 25, at the Special Care Unit at Rivermead in Peterborough, N.H. Dr. Lyle, who worked for several newspapers around the country after his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1946, taught English and journalism at the College from 1961–1986 and founded the journalism program and major. He was awarded the KSC Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 1978.
If you click on the “More information” link, below, you’ll read a nice remembrance of Dr. Lyle from one of his former students. We’d love to hear from other alums who remember this great professor! Please use the “Comments” feature on this page.
Bud Lyle was the faculty advisor when I was Editor of the KSC Monadnock back in the late 1960’s. We ran a story on lack of available campus parking at that time, complete with a picture of a student’s car and a clearly visible and very obvious license plate number. This student had a habit of bending if not breaking the campus parking rules and given the tempo and tone of the times (can you say building sit-ins and campus strikes…?) and we had no qualms about running the photo with the story. Bud Lyle felt differently and made his feelings and philosphy quite clear albeit after the issue was released. We were wrong to run it and while too late to edit but no less upset, Bud Lyle made us realize that there were certain conventions that we in journalism did not fracture and although the photo and story ran, we realized the error of our ways and never again placed any individual’s name or reputation in such a public spotlight again. Although times have changed, I believe Bud Lyle’s philosphy still remains sound today.
I had the good fortune to be a student of Dr. Lyle’s in the late 70s and early 80s (contrary to this notice, he taught at least until the mid-1980s). I still repeat many of his axioms in the newsroom: “Space together those things that go together,” which he called “Brady’s Law” and which he also admitted was a made-up moniker – there was no Brady. He taught me a great deal about fairness, persistence and the opinion function. I did not always agree with his philosophy, but I greatly respected his intelligence, scholarship and the obvious love he had for teaching and his students. Dr. Lyle’s students will always remember “the 24-hour project,” a Writing and Research exercise in which you were given a country to research and 24 hours to do it. He taught us journalism the old-fashioned way, with manual typewriters, pica rules and proportion wheels, but his insight into writing, reporting and editing was timeless. May the good gentleman rest in peace.
He taught me everything I needed to know to start a career. I think it was ’68-’69 when I took his J-I and J-II. He taught high standards of writing and reporting. I remember a story I wrote about a speech made by Roman Zorn. He smeared Dixon-Ticonderoga Editor #2 all over it, with arrows and crossouts, and his opinion, which was “+++++ Editable!” Forty years later I’m still in the biz. This would not have happened but for him. As a reporter and sometimes editor, sometimes teacher and occasional PR person, I have tried to “pay it forward,” which is the only way to try to repay such a debt. Thanks “Tooth.”
p.s. Hi Lonnie. Hope you’re well.
I am sad about our loss of Professor Bud Lyle, the man who came to Keene State and turned the college newspaper, The Monadnock around and made us journalists and writers of news.
It was my good fortune to be the editor of the Monadnock for 2 1/2 years. We both came to the newspaper at the same time. I do not try to say that I became a great journalist, but he certainly taught me how to write news articles, stories and most important, how to get the paper together and out on time!
Under his guidance The Monadnock went from a paper that contained old and outdated news to one that actually came out with news from the previous day…some of the time and as often as our small staff could put together the news.
We changed to photo-offset as opposed to cut and paste and changed the newspaper of KTC and then KSC forever.
He was a great influence and a factidious advisor to all who worked with him. I thank him for his guiding hand in my life.
Ken Morris, ’64 Fort Lauderdale, FL
To those who didn’t know Dr. Lyle, he was a strict “by-the-book” journalist; a great mentor; and a first class professor that KSC was very lucky to have had…Today’s media could follow his formula of being the “announcer in the booth, not the referee on the court” ….if they practiced that we’d all get the objective news of the day, not their biased interpretation…He was a tough teacher who was able to connect with his students, challenge them to greater heights and offer so much knowledge about his field. He commanded more respect than any other professor I ever knew. A lasting impression for me personally was receiving one of his infrequent “A”s in my 24-hour assignment on Rashid, Iran. If we had more Bud Lyles, we’d all be smarter for it…God bless you Bud…You made a difference in my life!
In the four years I knew him, Bud did two thngs well: He taught people like me how to write news and he made people like me laugh our asses off because every time you’d approach his office, he’d be talking up a storm and you’d think there were people in his office, but it was just Bud talking to himself.
Thanks to Mr. Lyle I had a pretty good career as newspaper reporter and editor. I am deeply grateful. I loved his puns.
ernie hebert
Senior year, second semester, they brought Bud out of retirement to teach my Communications Law Wednesday night class. What I was thinking was going to be an easy semester sure didn’t turn out that way! He was a tough teacher, but I appreciated what he taught us and you could tell that he loved teaching the class.
Dr. Lyle was indeed a wonderful journalism professor. My understanding of the English language and the rules of grammar can be directly attributed to him! He did not approve of my intentions to go into radio news, but oddly enough the 24-hour project turned out to be a perfect precursor to my last 20 years on Capitol Hill.
The Class of ’85 was one of the first classes to use a computer for word-processing journalism assignments…a large Deck 10 in one room and a few rows of monitors and keyboards in the next room. I’m sure he originally considered this innovation a travesty and that real journalists took notes by hand (no recordings) and typed their stories on manual typewriters. However he eventually had to accept (like my boss, also a former journalist) the technological progress as long as it did not change the standards he taught.
Bud’s gruff exterior did bely a wonderful sense of humor and a dedication to his students and Keene State College.
Those of us who knew him, either as a teacher or colleague, will always fondly remember Dr. Lyle.
I was thinking of my time at Keene State College today and wondered if I could find out about Dr. Cornelius R. Lyle II, my Journalism professor at Keene State. I was obviously saddened to visit this site and learn of his passing earlier this year. Although I am not in the Journalism field today, I attribute much of my writing skills directly to what I learned under Dr. Lyle’s instruction and guidance. To me, he truly embodied what a Professor was all about…I found his knowledge of the newspaper industry and the journalism industry fascinating. He also stood out as THE most demanding teacher I have ever encountered, but his methods were intended to bring out your best. I also remember the “24-hour” project and thought I would never survive it, but it taught me to rise to a challenge and not be afraid to attack a difficult task. I felt so relieved at the B+ grade…you truly had to earn anything he gave you. I also remember his reaction to my identification of Veloce Sprint as an Alfa Romeo automobile as part of a quiz he gave that asked us to research and identify phrases (I knew that one right off the bat, and he was impressed – something that was difficult to do). About two weeks after I graduated, I received a surprise phone call at home from Dr. Lyle. He recommended me for a reporter position at a small-town weekly newspaper. I remember he told me that I “wouldn’t get rich, but I would at least be able to eat.” I had already accepted a position as a Technical Writer, and I am still in that field today. Dr. Lyle (I always called him that) touched so many students and shaped so many careers because of his passion. He will never be forgotten and his legacy lives on in the lessons he taught all of those who studied under his watchful eye.